Tom Holland pulled Spider-Man game finishing moves directly into Brand New Day

Tom Holland and director Destin Daniel Cretton have revealed that Sony's Spider-Man games were a direct creative influence on the action in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with Holland specifically citing the games' finishing moves as a key inspiration. Both spoke to IGN's Jeffrey Vega at the film's premiere on Monday, July 27.

Holland admitted he was playing Insomniac's Spider-Man the night before the premiere — unable to sleep from excitement — and said the finishing moves shaped a lot of what ended up on screen. Cretton added that stunt performers and action designers on the production were serious gamers themselves, regularly screenshotting moves from the games and bringing them into the writers' room to figure out how to recreate them practically. "They would just screengrab the moves they really liked and bring them into the writers' room and show it to me," Cretton said. "And then we'd be like, 'Yeah, that's sick. Let's try to figure out how to do that for real.'" Holland has talked about his love for Insomniac's games before — back in June he told IGN Benelux that both he and Zendaya are fans, though Zendaya reportedly refused his help on tougher sections and boss fights, wanting to experience them herself.

Insomniac's Spider-Man games have built a reputation for fluid, acrobatic combat with stylish takedowns, so it makes sense that a film production would mine them for choreography ideas. The cross-pollination is going both ways: Sony is adding Tom Holland's Brand New Day suit to Spider-Man 2 to mark the film's release, and a second suit based on Peter Parker's look in the upcoming Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is also coming to the game — part of a broader collaboration that also includes a Tokon-inspired suit for Marvel's Wolverine.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens in theaters on July 31. Early box office projections are bullish, with Deadline estimating a domestic opening weekend of $180–$190 million and Box Office Pro going higher at $230–$250 million. IGN's review scored it 7/10, praising its focus on web-swinging spectacle while noting that Peter's emotional arc occasionally makes the "brand new day" premise feel more like Groundhog Day.